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How to Find a Good, Protective Working Dog for Sale
At least half the anecdotes I have from training, breeding and studying dogs are humorous in nature and this is one of them though it certainly does not start out that way.
Years ago, when I still ran my kennel, Haus Vom Brett, as a responsible breeder I decided I wanted an excellent stud dog and went searching all the puppies for sale and dogs for sale ads under German Shepherds.
We found Ceno in the Czech Republic and brought him home to Idaho in the USA. We drove to Seattle, Washington to get him because this would ensure he only had to endure one airplane ride instead of two. I’ll never regret that because the water had tipped and the inside of his kennel was wet; he was shivering and that night when he went to the bathroom, it was pure white. The pure white color indicates dehydration so had Ceno been put on a second plane and shipped off he actually could have died.
Ceno was solid black from strictly police lines. I had already taken great care to make sure my East German and West German dogs and pups were of strong working Schutzhund lines. Ceno’s pedigree showed some ancestors involved in the sport but most of them had been or were currently working police dogs.
The website that featured Ceno showed him biting – really grabbing on and not letting go. Though he was considered a “green” dog, partially trained as he was eighteen months old. He was pure black and that is one of the most desirable colors; black German Shepherds are considered to have strong genes. He was perfect for the standard; not bred for size or for the lower rear that contributes to hip dysplasia. His toenails were all solid black; his ears the right size and shape for his head. The bottom line with Ceno was that he was perfect.
Over a pretty short period of time, we came to realize Ceno had some psychological problems. It took us a long time, but we worked through all of these. My partner, Bryan Kriger, spent 2 or 3 half hour periods a day laying on the floor in Ceno’s run with his back to him because Ceno was afraid of us. He was afraid of people. When we would work him on a bite, he was as likely to bite the handler (me) as he was the helper. We knew something had happened to him in a training situation, that it involved one of his handlers and that he needed to have his courage built.
Ceno and two other dogs that came through our kennel taught us how to build total self-courage in the dog. A book I am writing called “Fraidy-Cat Dogs” will explain our methods in detail.
For weeks, Bryan and then both of us only worked Ceno in a way that would teach him to trust us and he had no problem recognizing our body language. He taught us that not only was Ceno viewing our passive position as non-threatening; he was actually reading more into it and it was bringing his protective instincts to the surface. In fact this whole process with Ceno was key in re-enforcing what we were learning from the dogs and that was to bring out or enhance their natural instincts in a manner that was productive to both the dog and the owner.
We already knew from the videos we’d viewed that Ceno could bite, so as his courage grew we started him on searching for articles and people. One bitter cold Fall day, we were coming back in the woods from a successful search and rescue training session. Suddenly I lost my footing and landed flat on my face in a ice cold muddy pool of water.
Ceno was off leash and I am told he did not hesitate; he moved quickly to lay himself across me to protect me. He literally stretched out to cover me from head to toe. There will be more of this in the book I already mentioned as well as in my book “The Language of the Dog,” but we’d already seen this type of behavior in other dogs. The problem was that between Ceno’s weight (about 80 pounds) and the fact that I could not stop laughing, I might have drowned or simply inhaled a few quarts of mud if Bryan had not been there to get Ceno off me and help me up.
That day was the first day we saw Ceno happy. No, not when I was drowning in the frigid cold mud, but when he saw me standing and seemingly okay, his tail was thumping hard on the ground, his eyes shined and he began romping around like a pup.
After that day, we were able to start Ceno onto his protection training and we had no more problems getting him to understand his job was to protect and who to protect.
About the Author
Cathy Jordan
Editor
onlinepups4sale.com.au
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